Documentary Recommendations – Series 4 Animals

I love animals, especially dogs so you can definitely find me watching some documentaries on them.

Wildlife SOS (series – Netflix) – Would Not Recommend

This follows a wildlife sanctuary in the UK rescuing badgers, birds, deer, foxes, and other animals. I got to tell you, I skipped all the bird parts hah but it was sweet seeing the staff save the animals and nursing them back to health. I learned a lot about badgers but this was more used as background noise as I did other work and just passed the time.

Peculiar Pets (Netflix) – Would Not Recommend

This documentary is all filmed in the UK and follows a few cases of households with exotic pets such as crocodile, a lynx and a Komodo dragon. I must admit i skipped the dragon part but the lynx and wolf were cute. It’s a super short doc, just 45 minutes but it’s by no means life changing or deeply interesting.

Dogs (series – Netflix) – Would Not Recommend

There are 6 episodes in this docuseries following a different dog(s) in each episode. I only watched the first two and the fifth episode because those stories seemed most interesting to me. The first was a young teen girl still struggling through getting a hold on her epilepsy. She will be receiving a service dog who will help to recognize when she’s about to go into a seizure and help bring her out of it. You learn a bit more about service dogs, different jobs they can do, and the initial training they have with their new owner. The episode unfortunately ends shortly after the dog goes home with the family so you don’t know exactly how it all turns out.

The second episode is a dog named Zeus who is stuck in Syria while his owner was able to escape on a work visa to Germany (or somewhere). Zeus has been staying with a friend who is also in hiding and it’s not safe for any of them in that warzone. Zeus traveling through borders by car and plane. There are a few hurdles along the way and you’re not sure if Zeus will be reunited with his owner. Everyone loves Zeus and you feel for the friends that are now losing that piece of light in that terrifying war.

The fifth episode is about Territorio De Zaguates in Costa Rico. It’s very possible you’ve heard about it as it’s a bit of a tourist attraction that you can run with hundreds of dogs on the multi acre shelter. This shelter never turns away a dog and it warms your heart to see them get taken off the streets. As the episode unfolds though, you being to question if they’re taking on more dogs than they can handle. Food, money, water, shelter, staff, and vet visits is a lot for any shelter to take on but at this size you wonder if more is always better.

The Champions (Netflix) – Would Not Recommend

These are the dogs from Mike Vick’s dog fighting ring. You learn some terrible details of what he did to these dogs and become angry that he’s a multi millionaire now. The good news is there has luckily been some improvements in the justice system as far as working to rehabilitate the dogs rather than just sending them to be euthanized. You get to see some of the abused dogs in new, loving homes being treated as they deserve as well as seeing dogs at facilities working with dedicated staff. The lack of justice just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth as far as recommending it to anyone else.